This is a CTP of initiative: Impact Hub Vienna (Austria)
The interviewee emphasised an internal shift in the frame of the programs of HUB Vienna. So far they were focused on individual support. Mainly caused through insights on the ‘design for impact’ event, hosted by Impact HUB Vienna, there was a shift to increasingly support teams and groups. Members became aware of ‘ecosystems’ as the interviewees expressed the new group orientation and that Impact HUB Vienna can offer tools, social methods, platforms to support the emergence and thriving of these ecosystems. So far individuals were subsidized till Impact HUB Vienna realized they intend to support not only innovators, but also solutions. They noticed it needs a combination of different actors to implement ideas, realizations and solutions together with entrepreneurs, e.g. for the integration of refugees in the labor market. First it needs an open space to work together on questions like, what is needed, and how to implement new solutions. With the new programs they try to test this in an agile way.
This shift from individual to group support was mainly inspired through insights from the large ‘design for impact’ event. Hosted by Impact HUB Vienna in collaboration with the ‘University of Applied Arts’ Vienna, the conference was connected with the global Impact HUB movement with more than 200 participants. Since this large event the HUB is more present in public media. According to the interviewee, the public sector realized the need of innovation, also the business sector which have been active in low level thresholds and translate the languages and the tools of social entrepreneurs to the wider business world and media. The openness to alternative models has increased; the business sector realizes that innovation cannot happen without civil society initiatives. This openness of the business sector and other branches opened a new world of potential collaborators for the supporting programs.
‘design for impact’ event, hosted by Impact HUB Vienna, in connection with global Impact HUB movement with more than 200 participants
The CTP is the result of a fusion of previously separately organised supporting programs. It can be interpreted as an overcoming of contestation of different branches inside activities of the HUB. Also towards external On August 13, 2013 the managing director of Impact HUB Vienna blogged ‘the future is collaboration’. “40 representatives from the business and social entrepreneurship (SE) sectors met in the HUB Vienna to discover and develop possibilities for collaboration. After the meeting the groundwork for the next collaborative endeavors was laid.” http://vienna.impacthub.net/2013/08/13/the-future-is-collaboration/
The CTP of transforming programs from individual support to solution orientation was indeed consciously created and it was worked towards it. In the situation it was not clear yet, what kind of new programs could be established.
The main learning that initiated the CTP came from the insight that a shift needs to be done from supporting individuals with their idea to supporting solutions. Impact HUB Vienna people realized that the main question is, how they can create tools, support for social entrepreneurs and networks and ecosystem of entrepreneurs, public, political actors, civil society, charities etc. to solve a problem. How they can provide the service tools for them. The skills and expertise in learning and experience design and combining methods of ‘art of hosting’ existed already amongst Impact HUB people. Still, it is every time learning and new planning to design a workshop. The workshop preparation asks what kind of experience need to be done to reach results and which methods can be applied? They chose according to the target of the meeting and the stakeholders which methods to use: e.g. world café, design thinking, Theory U. Concerning learning the interviewee stated: “To scale ideas it needs not only individual entrepreneurs but actors from the established business sector, from governance and NGO working together. It was a test and now we are doing it regularly.”
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